15Peter20

Went to Tiger kingdom in Mae Sa. 420 baht to get in a cage with the bigger tigers and stroke/take pictures with them., 620 baht or so to do the same with the smaller cubs. 150 Baht to go in a large perspex bubble on a small lake/pond within the grounds for about 10 mins.

Then 2 snake farms - the nearest one to the beginning of the road that you turn into off the main road from CM, on the right, seemed to be better than the one another km or two down on the left. Entrance to one on the right was 100 Baht per person (although this was not far from closing time so they may have lowered it for us - when I asked the woman at the desk how much, she paused for quite a while before coming out with a figure of 400 for 4 of us) and they've got a pretty good collection of birds and small animals as well as the snakes. the one further down had not much more than the area for the snake show. At 200 Baht to get in I felt pretty ripped off there. The shows at both places were enjoyable but almost identical. No need to visit both unless you have a snake-obsessed young child with you.

My view is USD/THB will push towards 29. GBP will weaken vs USD and I wouldn't be surprised to see it push towards 1.50. With that in mind don't be surprised to see GBP/THB pushing towards 45. There'll of course be ups and downs along the way, but I see more chance of GBP/THB at 45 than GBP/THB 50.

From a macro picture US and UK are in far worse shape than Thailand in terms of their economies, particularly relative to where they come from. They're going thru much tougher times than Thailand.

Examples: UK and US both have indulged in QE and increasing their money supplies. Both low interest rates look set to continue = unattractive currency. Both have(or had) their sovereign credit ratings under pressure. Both running large deficits. Both high debt to GDP levels etc etc. Both no or anemic growth. All these are negatives relative to where they are, and historically where they've come from. Relatively Thailand is better placed.

US seems a bit better placed than UK, and further along the curve - already downgraded, looks like small growth ahead, plus it's still looked at as the world's reserve currency - even if that's changing slowly.

Summed up US in a bad place, UK worse. Thailand doing relatively nicely.

Historically I used to aim to keep one third of my assets in GBP (where I was), one third in THB (where "I am"), and one third in other currencies. For various reasons (currency appreciation, strong investment returns, previously earning in THB etc) my THB exposure has moved to over 50%, and GBP and other currencies dropped.

I'm not overly uncomfortable with this. The way the world is at the moment, and given Thailand is our home now. I'm mindful of reducing my allocation to THB to more like 40%, when timing is right, as shocks always happen, but not into GBP and US at the moment.

Thanks a lot for your thoughts. If I may ask, what's your opinion on getting into gold? I'm looking to exit GBP as soon as possible and was wondering if that would be a good destination for it. Otherwise, even at 47 Baht to the GBP I might have to buy THB now given yours and others' forecasts.

Well I've just conducted a vote among the family on 1) Ratchapruek (again) 2) Mae Sa Valley (again) 3) Bowling (again).

This being Thailand, my wife tried to sabotage the vote but I managed to uphold the spirit of Democracy and Mae Sa it is. Will report back upon our return, if anyone is even the remotest bit interested.

It's also what you make of it. Took my kids to the construction site of one of the new malls, to look at big cranes, trucks, loaders and excavators. Spent the better part of an hour there and had to drag the youngest one away from it. Kind of enjoyed it too, as we pondered if the big crane operator would come down for lunch and climb all the way down, or just stay up there. "But.. what if he has to go to the bathroom..?" etc, etc.

In general people don't seem to mind this sort of recreation. Get the impression they even appreciate showing an interest; truck drivers were waving and smiling, etc. You can do the same at fire stations, looking at the fire trucks, etc.

Or you can do that short boat trip up and down the Ping river, which is pretty mundane for adults but kids like it. And don't knock the temples, many have interesting things to see, bells to ring, gongs to bang. And some of them are actually the closest thing to 'a nice park', eg. Wat Umong where you can also feed the fish, try to spot the turtles, explore the eerie tunnel building. And don't forget the excellent hotels we have, my oldest (girl) really (REALLY) enjoyed the 'high tea' at the chedi, doing everything all princessy. Or the Oriental Hotel, you can explore the grounds easily there. (Also took the horse carriage around when they had them, that actually was highly interesting also for adults.) I don't think they still run the horse carts, but you can do that of course at Wiang Khum Kam, another thing that's fun for kids to be in the horse carriage and also for adults to see the historical sites. And then there are the parks, could be as small as the small area behind Wawi coffee on Ratchadamnoen (where there's a nice Vietnamese place), where the kids can run around for a bit. And proper parks of course like the Royal Flora (there's quite a bit on the outside so you don't have to pay), or for a really nice and big park there's the Taveechol Botanical Gardens on the Doi Saket road. Or Queen Sirikit of course. And several resorts on the Mae Sa loop. Then you can say many things about the Night Safari, but kids really dig the place. Also the cheap loop around the lake, or even all the free stuff outside, where you can see deer up close, feed the giraffes (try that!), elephants and watch white tigers. Speaking of tigers, the Tiger Kingdom again you can have some qualms about, but again it's really fun for kids. And did I mention the airport.. Bring an umbrella, but from the foot bridge near the runway you have a great view of planes landing and taking off (I pick a time when there are a lot of arrivals in short succession). Then we often go to Chiang Mai University, at the Ang Kaew lake which is a great place to sit on the lawn, look at the lake and eat chicken and sticky rice. And just a short drive up to Doi Suthep you have some streams and small waterfalls that are free, and a jungle trail that's really easy to walk but pretty adventurous for kids.. then in the end you get to Pha Ngoeb, the rocky cliff overhang (pretend they've 'discovered' it. ) And the train! Take one of the cheapo trains to Lampang, which goes through some spectacular hills and forests, really an experience even for adults. And it costs next to nothing (several trains are free for Thai people actually). And then more horse carts in Lampang. Then Huay Tueng Thao of course (another excellent 'park-like' area) and you can swim of course. On the way there are a couple places where they have horses, and kids can also learn to ride horses and ponies. But just going in to take a look is fun. I could probably go on all day just writing this stuff down, but it's time to go enjoy Chiang Mai. With the kids.

Thanks for taking the time to write this. We've done about half the stuff you mention. Several times. There are a couple of things in your post though - further out of town - that are novel and may be good for a weekend or two and for that I am grateful to you.

I suppose the number of events/activities in a town are directly proportional to its size. Chiang Mai isn't that big and we will indeed be moving out soon but again I get the sense that some people are overly sensitive to any criticism of the town even if it is tempered by an admission that it is actually great in other ways.

By the way, where are those horses that children can ride on the way to Huay Tung Taow?

To Johpa and WinnieTheKwai:

Have either of you ever been responsible for keeping a kid of between 3-7 years old entertained in Chiang Mai over a period of a few years?

The suggestion that temples, malls and walking street would entertain such youngsters just shows how little you understand kids of that age. Things like the zoo, rafting and the monkey/snake farms etc are indeed of interest to them but how many times do you think a kid of that age would want to go in a year?

Stick to recommending your favorite restaurants and waterholes. I wouldn't call you out on those, but leave that which you know less about to those actually involved in the subject matter.

Chiang Mai has plenty of things going for it, but giving youngsters a varied range of activities over a period of months and years isn't one of them.

And as for Johpa's attempt at a 'you're not assimilated enough' put-down, my kid has spent plenty of time with Thai relatives (although I don't know if their village is traditional enough for him - it's not a gated community, if that helps), it's like when you went to visit your grandparents when you were 6, if you can remember that far back.

sorry, I re read your posting and assume you deposited cash here in Thailand

My apologies, maybe I wasn't being clear. The GBP was transferred from a UK bank account to a foreign currency account which was opened at a branch of Bangkok Bank in Thailand.

Surely there is no desire on the part of the government to see THB strengthen any more. The rates over the past two years haven't been an accident. I'm expecting it to bounce back fairly shortly within the 2-year range. Each of the 4 or so times it has strengthened as drastically as this it has bounced back to a point around midway between the high and low points within about a month.

I'm gonna go with the recent history on this one. I don't see the causes behind the baht's behaviour as being seismic changes.

also your (49.4) starting point for sterling maybe a little inflated. the pound was strong against the dollar over the immediate post new year period (a bit of a return to favour of risk assets) so it also saw a mini spike against the baht at the same time. this did not last long (2 days) and the pound has more or less gone back to where it was before xmass agst the dollar also a little bit worse than it was agst the bt. The bt has also been strong agst the dollar over the last few days maybe for the reasons cited above.

FWIW (IMO) sterling maybe a little bit cheap here against the dollar (and so prob also the bt) and medium term i would think there is a chance it will trend better. but week to week who knows.

My quote was referring to the 'TT' rate. I don't know what this means but I know that that is the rate we are being offered by the bank, and it always seems higher than the rate you would get if you just walked in off the street with sterling in cash.

You can see what I mean here:

http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/PersonalBanking/DailyBanking/CurrencyExchange/Pages/FXRates.aspx#

It actually went up to 49.7 not long before I started taking an interest in it on a daily basis.

Gutted now I have to wait potentially ages to avoid losing money, but I guess things could be worse

Does anyone know what's going on with this at the moment?

Two weeks ago I put a lump of GBP in a foreign currency account (Bangkok Bank) and was about to change it to THB but thought I'd track the THB exchange rate to see how it was going to go. I hadn't been tracking it at all before and know little about these things.

The exchange rate (TT) has gone down by 2 baht in as many weeks from 49.4 to 47.4. It seems that in the context of the stability of the past 2 years this is quite a dip. Anyone know why its happenning?

I can hold on to the GBP for a while but the sooner I can get a decent rate the better - the interest it's earning in the foreign currency account is a shade above zero. Does anyone have any confidence in the exchange rate recovering to around 49 anytime soon?

Cheers

Is it for definite that only women use 'Jaow'? I seem to remember it being used by some men, albeit much less frequently.

As a man you could use it when speaking to a young girl (same as 'kha'), or when you're as gay as a tree full of kittens.

I've sought some further info on this from the wife and it seems men can say 'Jaow' to be polite when talking to a female. Can also be used - like you suggest - if they're trying to be ladylike (eg katoey or otherwise effeminate). So it seems we won't find it used between two 'butch/straight' guys.

Conversely, my wife will sometimes say 'krap' to my daughter's boyfriend, again to be polite.

Is it for definite that only women use 'Jaow'? I seem to remember it being used by some men, albeit much less frequently.

So it took 2 days to call them back to the barracks. If he cannot control his army, what will happen next year when ................................

With 2000 generals in the Thai armed forces, surely one of them could have picked up the phone and told their commander use their built in phone in their Merc S500 and call the pawns in.

Yes, but then whoever would have 'called the pawns in' would have been seen as being anti 'the Boss' and their career prospects would have taken a sharp nosedive. This is the idiocy that arises from a system where patronage trumps universal regulations, and where the army trumps everything.

My apologies. I will re-phrase.

What do you think the response would have been if the same or other media outlet used the same terms to describe Thaksin? Do you think his private militia would be as polite in their demands to stop base insults? For that matter, as well dressed in their "uniforms"?

It's a pity that the Thai populace did not react the same way as the people of Australia when one of out latest VC awardees was attacked on a personal level for no defendable reason. At least there the offenders had the sense to grovel an apology.

Well, if you're asking people to accept the army behaving in the same way as the red mobs you so clearly despise, ie forming ad hoc gangs to go and intimidate private enterprises they don't agree with, then it seems you're love of the army trumps respect for any other institution in the land.

We get it. You were a squaddie and went through 'all that'. I think your perspective has been somewhat narrowed by your experience, which I guess is not uncommon among most posters here so I'm not having a go at you per se, just sayin.

You said your folks so i would if you havent allready set up an account in Thailand

Your folks again if they havent set up an online banking account in their country

get a card reader in their country

I would send the money from thier country to Thailand maybe a week before they travel.

It only takes 2 days to be in the bank account in Thailand sometimes less,so the above 1 week is incase they fill it in wrong and need to resend

Best solution if they are not sure is to go to the bank and get the bank to do it for them on their behalf.

Standard bank charges are between 15 GBP and 25GBP depending on time to arrive in Thailand.

No limit.

Thanks for that. I have an account here so will that be ok? Its with SCB. They don't have a clue about this sort of stuff and its never affected me. Were only simple folk from St Helens haha.

They are with Barclays in the UK as am I. I will tell them to sort out internet banking. I have a card reader so they could use that.

Cheers

Sent from my GT-N7000B using Thaivisa Connect App

I transfered from Barclays UK to SCB Bangkok with no problems a few years ago with no problem to pay for my condo. I did use Internet banking.

Sent from my LG-P698f using Thaivisa Connect App

If the amount you sent was worth more than 50,000 USD, were you required to provide evidence of what the money was for?

I recently opened a foreign currency account with BKK Bank and although there is no limit to how much you can send to it from the UK in one go, when you want to send it on to a Thai Baht account (from the foreign currency account) ie get it converted, there is this 50,000 USD rule requiring proof of intended use of funds.

Hi All

This may seem a really newbie question, but I've never owned a car with a GPS system in it before and am looking to get the Mitsu Mirage with GPS fitted as standard and intend to use it to go house hunting in Bangkok, which means driving around small sois looking for 'for sale' signs.

My question is, how detailed are the maps on these GPS systems? Okay, they obviously would show the main roads around town but do they also show the narrowest of sois all over town?

Cheers

15P

This would be a most welcome kind of coup for Yingluck and her party.

I had a funny experience of a Thai person's thinking today.

Driving around a quite fancy gated housing community looking for houses for sale, my wife and I passed a fairly big property in pristine condition. It was somewhat bigger than what we wanted but we thought we'd ring up the number on the 'for sale' sign just to find out how much it was. Turned out it cost 9 million.

A couple of sois further on, we passed another property of about the same size but this one was completely gutted - needed new windows and doors put in, paint and other substantial repairs throughout. We thought maybe this one would be cheap and we might be able to do it up ourselves, so we rang the number to find out the price. The woman on the other end said that it had already been sold. Out of interest, my wife asked her how much it had been sold for. At this point, after much umming and erring, the woman said that actually it hadn't been sold but that she'd bought the property with her farang partner and he insisted on demanding 8 million for it.

She said she was so embarrassed to ask for that price (and wanted to avoid people's reactions to it, I guess) that she was simply telling anyone who enquired that it had been sold already.

And they forget that the common denominator is themselves.

Alternatively the common denominator is women ....... next time they might try another man.

If I could relive my life in the west, I would do it with a male partner.

Somehow I still think you'd eventually perceive yourself as getting stung. Probably best to go partnerless for a while.

Anyone bemused by the reactionary drivel posted above should see the excellent opinion piece by Songkran Grachangnetara in the other paper today

How does letting Thaksin off his charges assist with reconciliation?

Please refer to the past 100 years of Thai politics. Amnesties were quite popular.

Sorry to be blunt but foreign countries get very wary when they see third world countries run by 'families'.

Leaders who appoint their relatives as opposeed to the most qualified to top positions are always viewed with suspicion.

So how do foreign countries see third world countries that have governments installed following coups?

The Dem party is playing the role of a casual prostitute with particularly low standards, shamed by servicing the fat bald army and now not being able to live down its reputation which has been ruined beyond repair anytime soon.

Whilst I don't condemn the actions of an individual behaving this way to put food on the table if no other ways are possible, when the representatives of a nation do it, it is something lower than petty whoredom.

Care to explain what you are talking about here. We haven't had a coup in 7 years and after it we had an election.

We now have are fourth PM since the coup and all elected.

Kind of makes one wonder what other kind of malfeasance she has up her brothers sleeve that she would be worrying about a coup

She's probably worrying about a coup because successive Thaksin-aligned governments were ousted from power without actually losing a general election (fact) rather than because of Thaksin's nefarious plan to enslave Thailand into doing his will (fiction). Wonder no more, and get behind your country's beloved leader. You know you want to.

Somebody died in Nong Khai. Is this a newsworthy story and if so why?

Just passing through are we?

Well, now that you ask, I guess not....

Sorry to be blunt but foreign countries get very wary when they see third world countries run by 'families'.

Leaders who appoint their relatives as opposeed to the most qualified to top positions are always viewed with suspicion.

So how do foreign countries see third world countries that have governments installed following coups?

The Dem party is playing the role of a casual prostitute with particularly low standards, shamed by servicing the fat bald army and now not being able to live down its reputation which has been ruined beyond repair anytime soon.

Whilst I don't condemn the actions of an individual behaving this way to put food on the table if no other ways are possible, when the representatives of a nation do it, it is something lower than petty whoredom.

I agree the girls in Thailand and Dairy Queen is insanely good eye candy...it's like stepford village :-) all slim and long hair and smiley.,..well most anyway ....

Aren't they still at school?

They look very young to me.

Yeah, that's a little weird of a post. They look to be about 16 years old.

I remember asking my wife about how Dairy Queen can employ seemingly under-aged staff, but she reckons they are relatively mature women (twenties plus) who are just made to look 13 because of franchise rules about having to have pony tails etc. Don't know if its true though.